Cathy
Lusby, Maryland
Innovation Award
The No Barriers USA
James O. Goldsmith Pioneering Spirit Award
An avid mountaineer, climber, cyclist and adventurer, Jim Goldsmith is no stranger to the outdoors. He finds sanctuary in the world’s greatest mountain ranges and natural places. Jim has hiked and climbed in the Tetons, Sierra Nevada, and Wind River Ranges in the United States as well as the Nepalese Himalaya, Italian Dolomites, the French, Austrian and Swiss Alps, the French and Spanish Pyrenees and mountains in Wales, England and Scotland. As a lifelong student of natural history, Jim’s recent adventures have taken him through tropical Hawaii to the Australian Outback and back. To Jim, the outdoors is a source of lifelong learning.
As much at home as Jim is in the outdoors, he is a tireless and passionate advocate for sharing his experiences with others and finding ways to make the outdoors – and life in general - more accessible to others. After five years of research, Jim co-authored and self-published the most comprehensive English speaking cultural and touring guide to the Dolomites of Italy. And in 2003, Jim was a co-founder of No Barriers USA. His goal was to grow an organization that removes the barriers that keep individuals with disabilities from exploring and enjoying the outdoors and all it has to teach us.
The James O. Goldsmith Pioneering Spirit Award was created to recognize the individual or organization that passionately and selflessly works to break down the barriers that limit accessibility to life. Through pioneering spirit, focused determination, innovative spirit and tireless effort, the recipient creates or improves a product, process or service that opens the door to adventure for others.
2009 Winner – Bill Barkeley
On behalf of the No Barriers USA Board of Directors, it gives me great pleasure to announce the first recipient of the No Barriers USA James O. Goldsmith Pioneering Spirit Award.
Bill Barkeley is deaf-blind and set out on a project to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to educate deaf-blind people and others on how assistive technologies are changing the ways we live, work and play. By using proven experience design techniques, and incorporating new and emerging assistive technologies, he was able to climb one of the world’s tallest mountains. His accomplishments, as well as his pioneering spirit, illustrate that we can turn any challenge we have into a life-changing opportunity.
His pioneering spirit and driven determination illustrate that there are no barriers in life.
